Feds to San Diego: Migrant families coming

FILE - This June 18, 2014 file-pool photo shows U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers waiting for new arrivals in the intake area where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Ariz. The Obama administration has released into the U.S. an untold number of immigrant families caught traveling illegally from Central America in recent months _ and although the government knows how many it’s released, it won’t say publicly. Senior U.S. officials directly familiar with the issue, including at the Homeland Security Department and White House, have so far dodged the answer on at least seven occasions over two weeks, alternately saying that they did not know the figure or didn’t have it immediately at hand. “We will get back to you,” the Homeland Security deputy secretary said Friday. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File-Pool)
The Associated Press

FILE - This June 18, 2014 file-pool photo shows U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers waiting for new arrivals in the intake area where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Ariz. The Obama administration has released into the U.S. an untold number of immigrant families caught traveling illegally from Central America in recent months _ and although the government knows how many it’s released, it won’t say publicly. Senior U.S. officials directly familiar with the issue, including at the Homeland Security Department and White House, have so far dodged the answer on at least seven occasions over two weeks, alternately saying that they did not know the figure or didn’t have it immediately at hand. “We will get back to you,” the Homeland Security deputy secretary said Friday. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File-Pool)

In an effort to process the flood of migrants arriving daily from Central America, the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection announced Friday that it will begin moving undocumented migrant families from South Texas to San Diego and El Centro.

The agency is preparing “to transfer adults with children from the Rio Grande Valley to the Laredo and El Paso Sectors in Texas and San Diego and El Centro Sectors in California,” it said in a statement.

“The movement will allow the U.S. Border Patrol in less congested areas to assist in processing family units from South Texas where we are seeing an influx of migrants crossing the border.”

The statement did not include a timetable, and spokespeople with federal border enforcement and immigration agencies said they had no details about when these families could start arriving.

“I can’t confirm a date at this time,” said Jackie Wasiluk, a CBP spokeswoman.

It is also not publicly known how many people are destined for San Diego, or where they will be processed and released pending a hearing.

Once these asylum seekers arrive and are processed by CBP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it will decide whether they should be detained or released “on a case-by-case basis.” Those released are typically required to return to the ICE office closest to their final destination, about two weeks later, for a hearing.

The migrants passing through San Diego are not all expected to stay; some may continue to other points in the U.S., and others may be deported. This initial group will be made up of families, not unaccompanied children. They will hail from Central American countries where safety and economic problems abound. Under U.S. law, they cannot be returned to Mexico even if they enter the country through that border.

The federal agencies did not say where the families could be housed. The federal government approached the city this week for help in finding places to house child migrants and had asked to lease the former Sharp Hospital building in Point Loma on a temporary basis, but the owner declined.

“Upon further consideration he is not expressing any interest in considering a short-term lease for the above agencies and their intended use,” a broker for the owner, Allan Kuebler, wrote to the city.

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Kuebler “is sensitive to the impact in the immediate community of such a lease,” continued the broker, Alan Scott.

Enrique Morones, executive director of Border Angels, a human rights nonprofit, said San Diego’s government, immigrant rights and social service groups are preparing to meet the needs of those arriving.

He said the influx of children into the U.S. may serve as a watershed moment for immigration reform by putting a human and urgent face on the moment.

“This society is judged on how we treat our children,” Morones said.

Peter Nuñez, a former federal prosecutor who supports stricter border enforcement, said the president has been more lax than previous ones in securing the border.